Modern Classics: Eero Saarinen's Womb Chair

In 1948 Florence Knoll asked her friend, Finnish architect and furniture designer Eero Saarinen, to create a chair that felt like "a great big basket of pillows that I can curl up in". Saarinen more than rose to the occasion — and the Womb Chair was born.

I don't have the space, or the cash, for a womb chair right now, but sometimes I go down the street to Sunset Settings and sit in their womb chairs for a while, until the salespeople start to give me dirty looks. The very first time I sat in one, I remember thinking that I felt like the center of the universe. And also that I couldn't remember the last time I'd been that comfortable. Which, I guess, is exactly the point.

TOP ROW:1. Two womb chairs are better than one. From Martha Stewart. 2. Everything about this interior is beautiful and luxurious… especially the two womb chairs at opposite ends of the room. From Interiors Digital. 3. I've always loved this cover from the Saturday Evening Post, in which a husband hides in the refuge of his womb chair while the rest of the family goes to church. Via Modernica. 4. In dark velvet; perfect in a luxe interior from David Hicks. 5. In a lovely living room from Lonny.

BOTTOM ROW:6. In Zoe & Trey's eclectic DC home. 7. With a fluffy rug and chunky stools. Yes, please. From Elle Decor. 8. In the movie 'Down with Love', Renee Zelleweger's character has two pale pink womb chairs in her fabulous 60s bachelorette pad. You can take Ewan McGregor; I'll take the furniture. Image from Stylish Thought. 9. Punching up a staid interior in a lovely shade of chartreuse. Dijeau Poage Construction via Houzz. 10. In a Sydney home packed with midcentury classics from The Design Files.